Latest Cato Research on The American FoundersIndividual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peacehttp://www.cato.org/
enamast@cato.org (Andrew Mast)webmaster@cato.org (Cato Webmaster)Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:22:16 -0500Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:22:16 -0500A Republic No Morehttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/republic-no-more
Jay Cost
<p>Jay Cost argues that the United States has turned from a republic into a special interest democracy. His new book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Republic-More-Government-Political-Corruption/dp/1594037272?tag=catoinstitute-20" target="_blank"><em>A Republic No More</em></a>.</p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/republic-no-moreWed, 04 Mar 2015 17:18 ESTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersJay CostGeorge Washington, the Man Who Established the Republichttp://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/george-washington-man-who-established-republic
David Boaz
<p>At the end of the American Revolution, King George III asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what George Washington would do next. West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.”</p>
<p>“If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”</p>
<p>Colloquially we now call the federal holiday on the third Monday in February “Presidents Day.” Legally, though, it’s still “Washington’s Birthday.” Which is appropriate, because without Washington we might not have had any other presidents.</p>
<p>George Washington was the man who established the American republic. He led the revolutionary army against the British Empire, he served as the first president, and most importantly he stepped down from power.</p>
<p>In an era of brilliant leaders, Washington was not the deepest thinker. He never wrote a book or even a long essay, unlike George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. But Washington made the ideas of the American founding real. He incarnated liberal and republican ideas in his own person, and he gave them effect through the Revolution, the Constitution, his successful presidency, and his departure from office.</p>
<blockquote class="pullquote right">
<p class="pq-quote"><span class="open-quote">“</span><span class="pq-body">Washington made the ideas of the American founding real.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>What’s so great about leaving office? Surely it matters more what a president does<em>in</em> office. But think about other great military commanders and revolutionary leaders before and after Washington—Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon, Lenin. They all seized the power they had won and held it until death or military defeat.</p>
<p>Washington held “republican” values — that is, he believed in a republic of free citizens, with a government based on consent and established to protect the rights of life, liberty, and property.</p>
<p>From his republican values Washington derived his abhorrence of kingship, even for himself. The writer Garry Wills called him “a virtuoso of resignations.” He gave up power not once but twice — at the end of the revolutionary war, when he resigned his military commission and returned to Mount Vernon, and again at the end of his second term as president, when he refused entreaties to seek a third term. In doing so, he set a standard for American presidents that lasted until the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose taste for power was stronger than the 150 years of precedent set by Washington.</p>
<p>Washington was not only a model for future presidents, too rarely followed, but he also left behind some advice. He laid out America’s founding commitment not just to toleration but to equal rights for all citizens in a famous letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island: “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”</p>
<p>In his Farewell Address, he laid a foundation for American foreign policy that we would do well to ponder today: “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”</p>
<p>He knew that a president’s job is not to run the country, nor to make law, but rather to carry out the laws made by Congress. In the Farewell Address, he urged all of those entrusted with office “to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism.”</p>
<p>Washington was a farmer, a businessman, an enthusiast for commerce. As a man of the Enlightenment, he was deeply interested in scientific farming. His letters on running Mount Vernon are longer than his letters on running the government. (Of course, in 1795 more people worked at Mount Vernon than in the entire executive branch of the federal government.)</p>
<p>On February 22, the actual anniversary of George Washington’s birth, we should remember the man who led the war that created the nation and established the precedents that made it a republic.</p>
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/george-washington-man-who-established-republicSun, 22 Feb 2015 10:07 ESTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersDavid BoazNation's Libertarian Rootshttp://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/nations-libertarian-roots
David Boaz
<p>Where better than Philadelphia on Presidents’ Day to talk about liberty and reviving the American tradition of freedom and limited government.</p>
<p>Thomas Jefferson said that when he wrote the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776, he had no book or pamphlet at hand but simply set down “an expression of the American mind.” With its foundation on the equal and inalienable rights of all people, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the Declaration also reflects the libertarian mind.</p>
<p>Indeed, the principles of the Declaration are so closely associated with libertarianism that the Chinese edition of my previous book, <em>Libertarianism: A Primer</em>, features a cover photograph of the famous room in Independence Hall, complete with Windsor chairs and green tablecloths.</p>
<p>Libertarianism is the philosophy of freedom. It has, in different form throughout history, inspired people who fought for freedom, dignity, and individual rights — the early advocates of religious tolerance, the opponents of absolute monarchy, the American revolutionaries, the abolitionists, antiwar advocates and anti-imperialists, opponents of National Socialism and communism.</p>
<blockquote class="pullquote right">
<p class="pq-quote"><span class="open-quote">“</span><span class="pq-body">America is a country fundamentally shaped by libertarian values and attitudes.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Libertarians believe in the presumption of liberty, that is, that people ought to be free to live as they choose unless advocates of coercion can make a compelling case. It’s the exercise of power, not the exercise of freedom, that requires justification. The burden of proof ought to be on those who want to limit our freedom.</p>
<p>We should be free to live our lives as we choose so long as we respect the equal rights of others. The presumption of liberty should be as strong as the presumption of innocence in a criminal trial, for the same reason. Just as you can’t prove your innocence of all possible charges against you, you cannot justify all of the ways in which you should be allowed to act. If we followed the presumption of liberty, our lives would be freer, more prosperous, and more satisfying.</p>
<p>America is a country fundamentally shaped by libertarian values and attitudes.</p>
<p>Throughout our history, most voters and movements have agreed on the fundamentals of classical liberalism or libertarianism: free speech, religious freedom, equality before the law, private property, free markets, limited government, and individual rights. The broad acceptance of those values means that American liberals and conservatives are fighting within a libertarian consensus. We sometimes forget just how libertarian the American political culture is. But social scientists know.</p>
<p>In their book <em>It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States</em>, the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks write, “The American ideology, stemming from the Revolution, can be subsumed in five words: antistatism, laissez-faire, individualism, populism, and egalitarianism.” Similarly, Samuel Huntington of Harvard wrote, “Prevailing ideas of the American creed have included liberalism, individualism, equality, constitutionalism, rights against the state. They have been opposed to hierarchy, discipline, government, organization, and specialization.”</p>
<p>Reflecting those ideas, especially as laid out in the Declaration, the founders created a Constitution of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. Unfortunately, as Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett has written, “what was once a system of islands of powers in a sea of individual liberty rights at both the state and the national levels, has become islands of rights in a sea of state and federal power.”</p>
<p>As government has exceeded its constitutional powers, there has been a remarkable surge in libertarian thinking. A series of CNN polls found that total support for a combination of libertarian positions had risen 30 percent between 2002 and 2012. Journalists now talk about a libertarian faction in Congress and in the electorate. Libertarian organizations are booming.</p>
<p>And no wonder. In the last few years politicians have given us many reasons to doubt the wisdom and efficacy of big, activist government. Endless wars. Economic collapse. Corporate bailouts. The highest government spending and national debt ever. An unimaginable level of spying on citizens.</p>
<p>I believe that the simple, timeless principles of the American Revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets — are even more powerful and more important in the world of instant communication, global markets, and unprecedented access to information, a world that Jefferson or Madison could not have imagined. Libertarianism is the essential framework for a future of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.</p>
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/nations-libertarian-rootsSun, 15 Feb 2015 09:08 ESTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersDavid BoazRoots of Liberty: Unlocking the Federalist Papershttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/roots-liberty-unlocking-federalist-papers
Roger Pilon
<p><div class="event-book"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roots-Liberty-Unlocking-Federalist-Papers/dp/1475213638?tag=catoinstitute-20"><img src="http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/images/roots-of-liberty-cover.jpg" border=0 ></a></div>The <em>Federalist Papers</em>, which explain America’s founding principles and the practical means for securing them, were instrumental in winning the hard-fought battle to ratify the Constitution. Yet today, high-school students often find it difficult to read them, if they are even encouraged to do so. To address that problem, and to help America’s future leaders to better understand the principles embedded in the Constitution, One Generation Away has published a book of essays by leading constitutional scholars that explains the central themes of the <em>Federalist Papers</em> in a language that upper-level high-school students of today will more easily comprehend. Please join us for a discussion of this book by two of its authors, followed by a discussion of how it may be used in the classroom.</p>http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/roots-liberty-unlocking-federalist-papersWed, 27 Aug 2014 16:00 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRoger PilonGeorge Washington and the Power of Restrainthttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/george-washington-power-restraint-0
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2014/schedule">Cato University 2014: Summer Seminar on Political Economy</a></p>
<p>The Cato Institute’s premier educational event, this annual program brings together outstanding faculty and participants from across the country and, often, from around the globe in order to examine the roots of our commitment to liberty and limited government, and explore the ideas and values on which the American republic was founded.</p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/george-washington-power-restraint-0Wed, 30 Jul 2014 08:59 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldLiberty and the American Experience, Part 2http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/liberty-american-experience-part-2
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2014/schedule">Cato University 2014: Summer Seminar on Political Economy</a></p>
<p>The Cato Institute’s premier educational event, this annual program brings together outstanding faculty and participants from across the country and, often, from around the globe in order to examine the roots of our commitment to liberty and limited government, and explore the ideas and values on which the American republic was founded.</p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/liberty-american-experience-part-2Wed, 30 Jul 2014 08:55 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldHow Collectivism Nearly Destroyed America before It Even Really Got Startedhttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/how-collectivism-nearly-destroyed-america-it-even-really-got-started
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2014/schedule">Cato University 2014: Summer Seminar on Political Economy</a></p>
<p>The Cato Institute’s premier educational event, this annual program brings together outstanding faculty and participants from across the country and, often, from around the globe in order to examine the roots of our commitment to liberty and limited government, and explore the ideas and values on which the American republic was founded.</p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/how-collectivism-nearly-destroyed-america-it-even-really-got-startedTue, 29 Jul 2014 11:30 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldWhy the Declaration of Independence Was Right: Demystifying Natural Rightshttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/why-declaration-independence-was-right-demystifying-natural-rights
Randy E. Barnett
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2014/schedule">Cato University 2014: Summer Seminar on Political Economy</a></p>
<p>The Cato Institute’s premier educational event, this annual program brings together outstanding faculty and participants from across the country and, often, from around the globe in order to examine the roots of our commitment to liberty and limited government, and explore the ideas and values on which the American republic was founded.</p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/why-declaration-independence-was-right-demystifying-natural-rightsTue, 29 Jul 2014 11:14 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRandy E. BarnettLiberty and the American Experience, Part 1http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/liberty-american-experience-part-1
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2014/schedule">Cato University 2014: Summer Seminar on Political Economy</a></p>
<p>The Cato Institute’s premier educational event, this annual program brings together outstanding faculty and participants from across the country and, often, from around the globe in order to examine the roots of our commitment to liberty and limited government, and explore the ideas and values on which the American republic was founded.</p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/liberty-american-experience-part-1Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:09 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldThe Influence of American Valueshttp://www.cato.org/publications/catos-letter/influence-american-values
http://www.cato.org/publications/catos-letter/influence-american-valuesMon, 21 Jul 2014 12:04 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersGarry KasparovDid the Constitution Fail?http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/did-constitution-fail
F. H. Buckley
<p>Are Americans free in spite of the Constitution?</p>
<p>Related event: <a href="http://www.cato.org/events/once-future-king-rise-crown-government-america"><em>The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America</em></a></p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/did-constitution-failWed, 04 Jun 2014 11:17 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersF. H. BuckleyTerms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution's Promise of Limited Governmenthttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/terms-engagement-how-our-courts-should-enforce-constitutions-promise
Clark Neily, M. Edward Whelan III, Roger Pilon
<p><div align="center" style="float: right; padding-left: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Terms-Engagement-Enforce-Constitutions-Government/dp/1594036969?tag=catoinstitute-20" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/images/terms-of-engagement.jpg" border=0 ><br>Purchase Book</a></div>The Constitution was designed to limit government power and protect individuals from oppressive regulation and the tyranny of majorities. But those protections are meaningless if judges aren’t committed to enforcing them. America’s judges have largely abdicated that responsibility. Instead of judging the constitutionality of government action, courts too often simply rationalize it. The problem lies not with the Constitution but with courts’ reflexive deference to the other branches of government. From the abandonment of federalism to open disregard for property rights and economic freedom, the Supreme Court consistently protects power at the expense of liberty. <em>Terms of Engagement</em> combines real-world examples of the harm wrought by judicial abdication with a rigorous case for a more engaged judiciary, offering both an indictment of the current system and a guide to reform.</p>http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/terms-engagement-how-our-courts-should-enforce-constitutions-promiseTue, 08 Oct 2013 12:00 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersClark Neily, M. Edward Whelan III, Roger PilonRob McDonald on how collectivism nearly destroyed Americahttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-audio/rob-mcdonald-how-collectivism-nearly-destroyed-america
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-audio/rob-mcdonald-how-collectivism-nearly-destroyed-americaTue, 01 Oct 2013 18:54 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldRemember the Anti-Federalists!http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/remember-anti-federalists
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/remember-anti-federalistsTue, 17 Sep 2013 17:05 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersTrevor Burrus"George Washington and the Power of Restraint" with Rob McDonaldhttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/george-washington-power-restraint-rob-mcdonald
Robert McDonald
<p>Rob McDonald gave this year’s Cato University attendees a reintroduction to George Washington. While many have forgotten, his founding principles continue to set an example for liberty.</p>http://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/george-washington-power-restraint-rob-mcdonaldFri, 16 Aug 2013 17:16 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonald"Liberty and the American Experience" with Rob McDonaldhttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/liberty-american-experience-rob-mcdonald
Robert McDonald
<p>Rob McDonald walks us through the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence.</p>http://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/liberty-american-experience-rob-mcdonaldFri, 16 Aug 2013 16:58 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldRob McDonald, George Washington and the Power of Restrainthttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-george-washington-power-restraint
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2013/schedule">Cato University 2013</a></p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-george-washington-power-restraintWed, 31 Jul 2013 19:34 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldRob McDonald, Liberty and the American Experience, Part IIhttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-liberty-american-experience-part-ii
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2013/schedule">Cato University 2013</a></p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-liberty-american-experience-part-iiWed, 31 Jul 2013 10:45 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldRob McDonald, Liberty and the American Experience, Part Ihttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-liberty-american-experience-part-i
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2013/schedule">Cato University 2013</a></p>http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-liberty-american-experience-part-iTue, 30 Jul 2013 10:45 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldRob McDonald, How Collectivism Nearly Destroyed America before It Even Really Got Startedhttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-how-collectivism-nearly-destroyed-america-it-even-really-got-started
Robert McDonald
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2013/schedule">Cato University 2013</a></p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/rob-mcdonald-how-collectivism-nearly-destroyed-america-it-even-really-got-startedTue, 30 Jul 2013 09:00 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldTom Palmer, Freedom in an Historical Perspectivehttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/tom-palmer-freedom-historical-perspective
Tom G. Palmer
<p>From <a href="http://www.cato.org/cato-university/2013/schedule">Cato University 2013</a></p>
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/tom-palmer-freedom-historical-perspectiveMon, 29 Jul 2013 13:32 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersTom G. PalmerThe Duty-Driven George Washingtonhttp://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/duty-driven-george-washington
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/duty-driven-george-washingtonFri, 26 Jul 2013 17:56 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert McDonaldElectoral College Was Framers' Antidote to Popular Votehttp://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/electoral-college-was-framers-antidote-popular-vote
Robert A. Levy
<p>Article II of the Constitution gives states broad authority to decide how their electoral votes are selected and divided among the candidates. In 48 states, the candidate who gets the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral votes.</p>
<blockquote class="pullquote right">
<p class="pq-quote"><span class="open-quote">“</span><span class="pq-body">The Framers meticulously crafted an electoral model that reduced sectionalism and reinforced minority rights.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the Constitution doesn’t require that rule. Maine and Nebraska have implemented district-by-district voting. One electoral vote goes to the winner in each congressional district, and the remaining two electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the statewide popular vote…</p>
<p>But is it a good idea? The Framers meticulously crafted an electoral model that reduced sectionalism and reinforced minority rights. Instead, popular voting would favor regions with high voter density and large states over small. “One man, one vote” may be the rallying cry of a democracy; but that is not our form of governance.</p>
<p>We are a constitutional republic; political outcomes are not always determined by majority rule. … For example, it takes two-thirds of Congress to override presidential vetoes, approve treaties, impeach a president, or expel a member of Congress.</p>
<p>Yes, there are downsides to district-by-district voting. First, it would increase the number and influence of marginal candidates who have little chance to win statewide majorities. Recall 1992, when Ross Perot captured nearly 19 percent of the national vote, but not a single state. If he had won a significant percentage of electoral votes, the election would have been thrown into the House of Representatives.</p>
<p>Second, winner-take-all eliminates the pernicious effect of gerrymandering from presidential elections. Under a district-based system, gerrymandering would impact presidential outcomes as well as congressional results. Third, less populated and closely divided states might attract candidates if the law provided for winner-take-all, but not if electoral votes were narrowly split.</p>
<p>Finally, a practical problem: district-by-district voting would have to be enacted by state legislatures. Because the dominant party would probably lose electoral votes, repeal of winner-take-all would be an uphill battle.</p>
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/electoral-college-was-framers-antidote-popular-voteMon, 13 May 2013 07:34 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRobert A. LevyGraduates, Your Ambition Is the Problemhttp://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/graduates-ambition-problem
Roger Pilon
<p>Civic education in America took a hit on Sunday when President Obama, giving the commencement address at The Ohio State University, chose citizenship as his theme. The country’s Founders trusted citizens with “awesome authority,” he told the assembled graduates. Really?</p>
<p>Actually, the Founders distrusted us, at least in our collective capacity. That’s why they wrote a Constitution that set clear limits on what we, as citizens, could do through government.</p>
<p>Mr. Obama seems never to appreciate that essential point about the American political order. As with his countless speeches that lead ultimately to an expression of the president’s belief in the unbounded power of government to do good, he began in Columbus with an insight that we can all pretty much embrace, at least in the abstract. Citizenship, Mr. Obama said, is “the idea at the heart of our founding—that as Americans, we are blessed with God-given and inalienable rights, but with those rights come responsibilities—to ourselves, to one another, and to future generations.”</p>
<blockquote class="pullquote right">
<p class="pq-quote"><span class="open-quote">“</span><span class="pq-body">Obama’s commencement speech at Ohio State on Sunday would have perplexed the Founders.”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well enough. But then he took that insight to lengths the Founders would never have imagined. Reading “citizenship” as standing for the many ways we can selflessly “serve our country,” the president said that “sometimes, we see it as a virtue from another time—one that’s slipping from a society that celebrates individual ambition.” And “we sometimes forget the larger bonds we share, as one American family.”</p>
<p>Not for nothing did he invoke the family, that elemental social unit in which we truly are responsible to one another and to future generations—by law, by custom, and, ideally, in our hearts. But only metaphorically is America a family, its members bound by tendrils of intimacy and affection. Realistically, the country is a community of individuals and private institutions, including the family, with their own interests, bound not by mutual love but by the political principles that are set forth in the Constitution, a document that secures and celebrates the freedom to pursue those interests, varied as they might be.</p>
<p>Alas, that is not Mr. Obama’s vision. “The Founders left us the keys to a system of self-government,” he went on, “the tool to do big and important things together that we could not possibly do alone.” And what “big and important things” cannot be done except through government? On the president’s list are railroads, the electrical grid, highways, education, health care, charity and more. One imagines a historical vision reaching as far back as the New Deal. Americans “chose to do these things together,” he added, “because we know this country cannot accomplish great things if we pursue nothing greater than our own individual ambition.”</p>
<p>Notice that twice now Mr. Obama has invoked “individual ambition,” and not as a virtue. For other targets, he next counseled the graduates against the “voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works.”</p>
<p>The irony here should not go unnoticed: The opponents that the president disparages are the same folks who tried to save the country from one of the biggest pieces of gum now in the works: Mr. Obama’s own health-care insurance program, which today is filling many of its backers with dread as it moves toward full implementation in a matter of months.</p>
<p>None of that darkens Mr. Obama’s sunny view of collective effort. What does upset him, still, is the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis: “Too many on Wall Street,” he said, “forgot that their obligations don’t end with their shareholders.” No mention of the Federal Reserve, or Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Community Reinvestment Act, or the many other “big and important things” government undertook before the crisis hit, things that explain the disaster far better than any Wall Street greed. None of that fits in Mr. Obama’s morality play. For that matter, neither do the Constitution’s checks and balances. When the president laments that “democracy isn’t working as well as we know it can,” he is not talking about those big, misbegotten public projects but about the Washington gridlock that has frustrated his grander plans.</p>
<p>From George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, presidents sought mostly to administer the laws that enabled citizens to live their own lives, ambitiously or not. It would have been thought impertinent for a president to tell a graduating class that what the country needs is the political will “to harness the ingenuity of your generation, and encourage and inspire the hard work of dedicated citizens … to repair the middle class; to give more families a fair shake; to reject a country in which only a lucky few prosper.”</p>
<p>A more inspiring message might have urged graduates <em>not</em> to reject their own country, where for two centuries far more than a lucky few have prospered under limited constitutional government—and even more would today if that form of government were restored.</p>
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/graduates-ambition-problemWed, 08 May 2013 09:19 EDTLatest Cato Research on The American FoundersRoger PilonThe Great Secessionhttp://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/great-secession
Doug Bandow
<p>Is America too big? Is it time to break up the U.S.?</p>
<p>A week after the November election nearly 700,000 Americans from all 50 states had signed 69 secession petitions as part of the White House “We the People” online petition system. The missives requested the administration to peacefully allow states to leave the union. One petition advocated permitting states which seceded to form their own nation. A formal White House review is triggered by just 25,000 signatures.</p>
<p>Although President Obama’s reelection sparked the cascade of petitions, advocates cited other grounds. Daniel Miller, president of the Texas nationalist movement, claimed: “This is not a reaction to a person but to policy and what we see as a federal government that is so disconnected from its constituents and absolute no regard for what its purpose was.” He added that “self-determination is kind of the underpinning to all of this — the ability to provide Texas solutions to Texas problems.”</p>
<p>One Texas petition complained that America “continues to suffer economic difficulties stemming from the federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending,” in contrast to the state, which “maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world.” Many of the petitions cited America’s Declaration of Independence. Two state measures quoted Benjamin Franklin: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” One petition spoke of the necessity of separating from “a tyrannical government.” A related bumper sticker proclaimed: “Secede! From the United Socialist States of America.”</p>
<p>Not everyone was amused. On the <em>Huffington Post</em> Bob Cesca <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/secession-obama-2012_b_2138541.html" target="_blank">called</a> signers “whiny diaper babies.” Others opposing secession responded with their own petitions. Some advocated seceding from those wanting to secede. One Texas petition advocated using education to “eradicate” the disease afflicting the “mentally deficient” who were pressing for secession.</p>
<p>And some petitions advocated defenestration for those exercising their First Amendment right to petition the government. Two online missives proposed deportation as a remedy. One petition urged the president to “sign an executive order such that each American citizen who signed a petition for any state to secede from the USA shall have their citizenship stripped and be peacefully deported.” No need, apparently, to go to Congress or the courts in this case. One of these measures quickly hit the administration’s 25,000 signature minimum.</p>
<p>Cesca even used the “T” word, calling advocacy of secession “technically an act of treason.” He noted that a similar effort was punished with great force 150 years ago.</p>
<p>The administration has yet to comment, but promised to prepare an answer. “Every petition that crosses the threshold is reviewed and receives a response,” stated the White House.</p>
<p>Today it is the Right that is talking about secession. However, Glenn Harlan Reynolds <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/11/18/texas-secession-obama-canada/1712241/" target="_blank">pointed out</a> that the left did so after George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004: “… disappointed Democrats were talking about secession, and circulating maps of America divided into ‘The United States of Canada’ and ‘Jesusland’.” Frustration with elections and policies are not confined to any ideology.</p>
<p>No leading political figure has yet signed on. The closest might be Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Three years ago he said his state wasn’t likely to secede, but “there’s a lot of different scenarios.” He said he saw no reason to dissolve the American union, but “if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that?” The same year he opined that as a onetime independent nation “we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.” But when asked about the new petitions, his spokesman said that the governor “believes in the greatness of our union and nothing should be done to change it.”</p>
<p>Indeed, truth be told, most of the signers probably don’t want to go. They are upset at Barack Obama’s re-election and are lashing out — even whining a bit, though not really like “diaper babies.”</p>
<p>However, if they were serious no one likely would stop them. Although President Abraham Lincoln plunged the disunited U.S. into a horrific civil war, today American leaders routinely lecture the rest of the world about the importance of settling such quarrels peacefully. They would more likely take the advice of one U.S. Senator who, three years into America’s greatest conflict, wished that the national government had said “erring sisters, go in peace.”</p>
<p>In contrast, Cesca imagined the possibility of “an army of disloyal soldiers and militia” seizing a handful of federal military bases, but losing to vastly more capable U.S. military which “would summarily wipe out an army of rag-tags.” Short of that, he predicted that Washington would starve out the dissenters, blocking “the power grid, pipelines, shipping lanes and, yes, satellite and internet communications.” He also foresaw the likelihood of “solidly blue areas inside the seceded states” which would require emergency airlifts, <em>á la</em> the Cold War Berlin Airlift.</p>
<p>It sounds like a Hollywood script being written. Indeed, one wonders if Cesca became a bit excited at the thought of visiting death and devastation upon Red States and all others who disagreed with him. Or perhaps he was smoking funny cigarettes or suffering from an overeager imagination when he wrote his column. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse stalk America! The Mayans were right: the world is about to end!</p>
<p>Cesca did make one fair point. Most of the states with the strongest support for secession are the biggest “moochers and freeloaders,” receiving substantial financial transfers from the national government. The <em>Washington Post</em>’s <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-the-confederacy-of-takers/2012/11/13/d8adc7ee-2dd4-11e2-beb2-4b4cf5087636_story.html?hpid=z2" target="_blank">Dana Milbank</a> made the same point: Missouri gets $1.29, South Carolina gets $1.38, Louisiana gets $1.45, and Alabama gets $1.71 for every $1 in taxes paid.</p>
<p>With secession “that gravy train would cease to exist,” noted Cesca. He went on to suggest that everyone in America would be helpless if they weren’t collecting federal goodies and looting everyone else, which is nonsense — pervasive subsidies and bail-outs make Americans weaker, not stronger. But some people currently demanding their freedom might not be quite so enthused about freeing themselves if they knew that meant they would be on their own financially.</p>
<p>Behind all the silliness is a serious issue, however. Why shouldn’t people be able to reorder their political arrangements if they wish? Must whatever has been put together be forever kept together? In an otherwise hysterical column, Peter Morrison, a Texas Republican Party activist, reasonably <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/12/4400978/commentary-politician-wants-texas.html#storylink=misearch" target="_blank">asked</a>: “Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?” Indeed, why?</p>
<p>There’s no inherent reason why any particular group of people should be in community with any other. Slavery will always stain the cause of the southern Confederacy, but what principle justified slaughtering thousands to hold the country together? Unionist Horace Greeley declared in the <em>New York Tribune</em>: “We hope never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets.” Then-Col. Robert E. Lee opposed secession but explained: “a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me.”</p>
<p>In many ways we are a badly divided people. <a href="http://cnsnews.com/blog/patrick-j-buchanan/stirrings-secession" target="_blank">Noted</a> Patrick Buchanan: “While no one takes this movement as seriously as men took secession in 1861, the sentiments behind it ought not to be minimized. For they bespeak a bristling hostility to the federal government and a dislike bordering on detestation of some Americans for other Americans, as deep as it was on the day Beauregard’s guns fired on Fort Sumter.”</p>
<p>Americans soon may face the issue from the other direction. On November 6 residents of Puerto Rico voted for statehood in a confusing plebiscite on the island’s status. Puerto Rico, conquered by the U.S. during the Spanish-American War, currently is a commonwealth. There long has been a small independence movement, but the majority of Puerto Ricans traditionally preferred commonwealth to statehood. This time the majority rejected the “present form of territorial status,” after which they voted on the alternatives of independence, statehood, and “sovereign free associated state.” Statehood won with 61 percent.</p>
<p>The mere fact that someone wants to join the union doesn’t mean it should be invited to join. That applies to other potential aspirants as well. There once was serious talk of Canada breaking up, and Patrick Buchanan mused on which provinces should be invited to become American states. Even if America’s northern neighbor dissolved and some of its parts wanted to join the U.S., it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to say yes.</p>
<p>Rather than arguing about secession, it would be better to revive federalism. The national government has grown into a monster Leviathan, attempting to micro-manage the lives of 314 million Americans. Yet Washington is dominated by unrepresentative elites which are largely beyond peoples’ control. Frustration and anger are justified.</p>
<p>What to do? Reynolds wrote: “Let the central government do the things that only central governments can do — national defense, regulation of trade to keep the provinces from engaging in economic warfare from one another, protection of basic civil rights — and then let the provinces go their own way in most other issues.” If you’re not happy, you don’t have to secede: just move to another state.</p>
<p>This has the advantage of fulfilling the original constitutional scheme. The national government was supposed to have only limited and enumerated powers. In contrast, according to James Madison in Federalist No. 45, states were to be concerned with “the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state.”</p>
<p>Bigger is not always better. Europe is discovering that reality, as opposition rises to continuing efforts to shift more power to the European Union and Brussels, and secessionist sentiments grow in Belgium’s Flanders, Spain’s Catalonia, and Great Britain’s Scotland.</p>
<p>Concern is likely to only grow in America. Washington is ever more imperious and unaccountable; it does ever more that should be left to other governments and, more important, to other institutions. Inflammatory rhetoric aside, Americans face a crisis of government.</p>
<p>Secession isn’t likely to prove a practical answer. Instead of breaking up the United States of America, people should focus on devolving authority to states, localities, families, and individuals. Rediscovering federalism should become the new mantra in Washington.</p>
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/great-secessionMon, 10 Dec 2012 (All day)Latest Cato Research on The American FoundersDoug Bandow